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Burma: Constitutional Amendment

‘Asked if Suu Kyi could become president following the amendment, he said, “As far as I’m concerned, if the two sons of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi adopt Myanmar citizenship, everything will be alright as her husband is deceased.”

That’s still a bit of a problem then as the sons would have to abandon UK citizenship…..

‘Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has suggested that it is unfair for the country’s ruling party to compel her two sons to take up Myanmar citizenship for her to be eligible to make a bid for the president’s post in the 2015 elections.

President Thein Sein’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) had this week proposed amending the country’s constitution to pave the way for her to contest the presidency on condition that her two sons, who currently hold British citizenship, become Myanmar citizens.

The constitution, written by the previous military junta which had kept Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for nearly two decades, states that any one of a presidential candidate’s parents, spouses, children or their spouses should not be a foreign citizen.

Aung San Suu Kyi said her two sons are above 21 years old and should be allowed to make their own decisions.

“Anyone’s sons or daughters, if they are above 21 years old, we cannot legally make a decision for them. They are adults and have the right to make their own decision for their own good,” she told RFA’s Myanmar Service when asked to comment on the USDP’s proposal to amend Article 59 (F) of the constitution to enable her to be in the running for the presidency in 2015.

Article 59 (F) states that “the president shall himself, one of the parents, the spouses, one of the legitimate children or their spouses not owe allegiance to a foreign power, not be subject of a foreign power or citizen of a foreign country. They shall not be persons entitled to enjoy the rights and privileges of a subject of a foreign government and citizen of a foreign country.”

While the USDP proposed that Aung San Suu Kyi’s sons take up Myanmar citizenship, it also called for a deletion to a provision in Article 59 (F) which states that any of the spouses of children of a presidential candidate should not be a foreign citizen.

In the interview, Aung San Suu Kyi wondered who would benefit from the move.

“I know the proposed deletion of this requirement is not to benefit me but I don’t know who will benefit from this,” she said.

Many children of government and USDP leaders as well as military generals are married to foreigners.’